How I made my first million : 26 self-made millionaires reveal the secrets to their success

N
ick
 G
ardNer
GolDen ruleS
1. Don’t spend more than you have. Keep your 
budget tight.
2. Don’t believe the naysayers. If you have an idea, 
have enough confidence to see it through—and 
believe in yourself.
3. Network like crazy. You never know when 
you’re going to make that connection that can 
make your business explode.
4. Don’t be afraid to employ p eople who are at 
least as smart as you.
5. Invest in the business—don’t blow money on a 
Porsche if you might need that money to keep 
the business going.

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An Ideal Business
Model
Shelley Barrett
ModelCo; 
established 2002; 
forty- three employees 
(including retail employees 
at David Jones);
$15 million- plus turnover
It’s hard work creating a 
brand cult that counts celebrities like Victoria 
Beckham, Keira Knightley, Mischa Barton and 
Cameron Diaz as devotees. It’s even harder to 
attract such p eople’s attention for free. But that is 
what Shelley Barrett’s beauty company M odelCo 
has managed to pull off in just seven years.
Photo: Sarah Rhodes

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AN IDEAL bUSINESS MODEL 41
The company’s 125 products are sold in 1000 
department stores worldwide—and the financial 
crisis hasn’t held up its growth in the slightest. The 
stores include très chic boutique Colette in Paris, 
beauty mecca Space NK in London, and lingerie 
chain Victoria’s Secret in the US. In Australia, 
where it all began, ModelCo has an exclusive 
concept- store agreement with David Jones.
In 2008 Barrett, aged thirty-six, had the 
ultimate endorsement when Victoria Beckham 
was snapped in LA checking her face with 
a M odelCo eyebrow compact that perfectly 
matched her pink outfit. Barrett was naturally 
delighted when her marketing director showed 
her the picture, which adorned a newspaper’s 
front page, not least because she and the former 
Spice Girl share a love of pink and handbags. ‘I 
didn’t have any idea she used our products until 
the picture came out,’ she recalls. ‘We were so 
flattered. The power of celebrity is huge.’
The only celebrity with whom Barrett has 
made a formal alliance is Elle Macpherson, who 
in 2006 became the face of her product Erase 
Those Fine Lines. The supermodel launched the 
product at a glamorous event in Sydney, where 
few fine lines etched the faces of the assembled 
beauty editors. Elle said she liked the treatment 
because it offered women a ‘non- invasive choice’ 

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42 HOW I MADE MY FIRST MILLION
and that she ‘finds the company and Shelley Bar-
rett very interesting’.
Barrett began her business career at twenty- 
one by launching her own modelling agency. A 
decade later, it had 1200 models and actors on its 
books. ‘My mother did my accounts and she still 
has our first cheque for 
$
120,’ Barrett says proudly.
Working with models and hair and make- up 
artists at fashion shows and shoots, she watched 
sympathetically when the girls winced as they 
curled their lashes and moaned that they wished 
there was some other way to create luscious eye-
lashes. By 2002, Barrett had found one: a heated 
lash curler that created the desired effect gently, 
like a hair curling wand. The trick was to find 
someone to manufacture it.
Fortuitously, her husband Damien was starting 
an import business at the time. He helped Barrett 
find a company in Korea that could make the 
wand and ship it back to Australia. They named it 
the ModelCo Lash Wand Heated Eyelash Curler 
and packaged it in pink simply because that was 
Barrett’s favourite hue. ‘It became the fastest- 
selling product in Myer,’ she says. Shocked and 
thrilled by the demand, the couple continued 
producing the bestseller. ModelCo overtook the 
model business, and within two years making 
millions was Barrett’s sole focus.

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AN IDEAL bUSINESS MODEL 43
If she needed any reassurance that she’d suc-
ceeded, Japan was it. When the company launched 
there, sales reached 
$
1 million in two months. 
‘When I started I had no global aspirations,’ she 
admits. ‘It was more of a pet project. We grew so 
quickly, it was sell, sell, sell, and all this money was 
coming through the door. But then it became 
about knowing how to spend it wisely. We didn’t 
make huge mistakes, but we could have done 
things a little better, smarter and quicker if we’d 
had better systems in place.’
Barrett created a point of difference in a 
crowded market by creating a slew of innovative 
dual- purpose and ‘quick fix’ products—all in her 
signature hot pink 
packaging. The first 
self- administered spray 
tan (tan in a can) was 
followed by Liplights, 
a range of lip glosses 
that had a mirror and 
a light for a touch- up 
in nightclub darkness or the back of a taxi.
And the pace hasn’t slowed. Barrett has also 
launched Fibrelash, a revolutionary eyelash prod-
uct. ‘You literally paint on false lashes and it costs 
just 
$
48,’ she says. ‘I think make- up is recession- 
proof. Women will never give up lipstick, lip 
‘ ‘
When I started I had no 
global aspirations. It was 
more of a pet project. We 
grew so quickly, it was sell, 
sell, sell, and all this money 
was coming through the 
door.

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44 HOW I MADE MY FIRST MILLION
gloss, foundation and mascara. And when the 
news is depressing, women want something to 
make them feel better. It’s all about feeling good. 
So we’ve expanded during the economic down-
turn and increased our spend on marketing and 
PR. And it’s worked.’
The crisis has made Barrett more creative in 
her approach to marketing. ‘We need to ensure 
there are value- driven offers—great promotions 
for gifts with purchase, for example—that draw 
in more customers.
‘We have a promotion running at the moment 
where customers at David Jones who spend 
$
48 on 
our products will get a full- size mascara, valued at 
$
28, for free. That is always going to be appealing.’
Barrett says she has looked closely at her costs 
and cuts back wherever possible to build a buffer 
against any unforeseen downturn in demand. ‘I 
have looked at freight, travel and administrative 
costs, but we haven’t made any changes to our 
employee head count or our marketing. It’s all 
about negotiating for smaller quantities and bet-
ter deals across all of those areas. But given that 
we’re expanding, I’m spending most of my time 
managing the growth.’
A nice problem to have.
As the mother of two girls aged two and three, 
Barrett knows the power of the quick fix. Her 

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AN IDEAL bUSINESS MODEL 45
company has managed to both meet demand and 
respond to trends faster than other beauty brands 
thanks to smaller size and greater agility and a 
determined focus on innovation. ‘The business 
grew organically from the Lash Wands, and a lot 
of money goes back into research and develop-
ment,’ she says. ‘Competing against the rest of the 
world is part of the challenge that I relish. It pays 
to be ambitious and actively seize opportunities. 
I don’t feel threatened by foreign competition, 
and I’m proud that ModelCo is taken seriously 
in the international area.’
Barrett won the American Express Award 
for Australia’s fastest- growing small business in 
2004, and was named Telstra’s New South Wales 
Businesswoman of the Year. ModelCo’s foun-
dation was named ‘Foundation of the Year’ over 
products by Dior and MAC, ‘which was a huge 
coup for us. I set myself huge goals and find the 
best team to achieve them.’ That still includes 
her husband and her mum.
ModelCo recently opened a small office in 
New York; the company is projecting a 
$
12–
$
15 million turnover and Barrett is planning to 
make further inroads into the US market with 
a presence on the Home Shopping Network, 
where sales can reach 
$
500,000 in one hour. 
Her airbrush tan range is already available at 

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46 HOW I MADE MY FIRST MILLION
Victoria’s Secret’s in- store beauty bars—where 
it landed with minimal effort on her part: ‘Vic-
toria’s Secret contacted us after hearing about 
our products from a buyer who saw them men-
tioned in magazines. We’d been tagged as the 
brand to watch and had won a Newcomer of the 
Year award. We’re fortunate in that we’ve never 
had to knock on doors.’
Barrett travels every six weeks to London, 
Paris and New York, where she occasionally gets 
an opportunity to buy for herself instead of the 
company. ‘I love bags and shoes,’ she says. ‘And 
I love little holidays away. We took the girls to 
Hayman Island for a five- day break, which is 
enough for me to rejuvenate. I also have mas-
sages in day spas at hotels. As the head of a beauty 
company I do have an image to portray, so I have 
to look groomed.’